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Détail de la contribution

Auteur: Yoshio ENDO

Titre:
Two Types of Why


Abstract/Résumé: Since Rizzi (1990), much attention has been drawn to the asymmetry between why and other wh-operators (e.g., Hornstein 1995, Ko 2005, Rizzi 1990, 2001, Stepanov and Tsai 2008, Thornton 2008). As an illustration of this point, consider the following contrast, where the how-clause shows negative islands while the why-clause does not: (1) a. Why didn’t Geraldine fix her bike? b. *How didn’t Geraldine fix her bike? Rizzi (1990) attributes this asymmetry to the fact that why is base-generated above negation in the CP zone, thus escaping negative islands, while how originates below negation, thus violating negative islands on its way to the CP zone. Most recently, Shlonsky and Soare (2011) challenge this idea by looking at other phenomena revolving around why and other wh-operators, claiming that why -clauses as well as how-clauses involve a movement operation. According to them, the absence of negative islands with why is to be attributed to the fact that there is a functional head above negation to host why, which they call ReasonP, and movement from this position does not cross negation. With this background in mind, I will suggest that there are two types of ReasonP, one of which is above negation, the other below negation, by looking at a new paradigm asking for reason, i.e. the split form "what…for" to ask for reason in English and the related expressions in other languages like Japanese, Italian, Modern Greek, etc. This paper is organized as follows. I will first introduce Rizzi’s (1990) classic idea that why is base-generated in the CP zone and Shlonsky and Soare’s (2011) recent proposal that why is base-generated in ReasonP in the IP zone and is displaced into the CP zone. I will next introduce a new paradigm revolving around the split form what…for to ask for reason in English and the related expressions in other languages. I will finally show that the classical paradigm mentioned above necessitates a slight revision of Rizzi’s idea of when an articulated CP structure is projected.